HomeNewsUltrasound-released nanoparticles may help diabetics avoid the needle

Ultrasound-released nanoparticles may help diabetics avoid the needle

November 25, 2013

New technique allows diabetics to control insulin release with an injectable nano-network and portable ultrasound device (credit: NCSU)

A new nanotechnology-based technique for regulating blood sugar in diabetics could give patients the ability to release insulin painlessly using a small ultrasound device, allowing them to go days between injections — rather than using needles to give themselves multiple insulin injections each day.

A patient who has type 1 or advanced type 2 diabetes needs additional insulin, a hormone that transports glucose — or blood sugar — from the bloodstream into the body’s cells.

These diabetes patients must inject insulin as needed to ensure their blood sugar levels are in the “normal” range. However, these injections can be painful.

The new technique — developed by Dr. Zhen Gu, an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill, and other researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — may offer a solution.

1. Biocompatible and biodegradable nanoparticles are injected into a patient’s skin. The nanoparticles are made out of poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) and are filled with insulin.

(Each of the PLGA nanoparticles is given either a positively charged coating made of chitosan (a biocompatible material normally found in shrimp shells), or a negatively charged coating made of alginate (a biocompatible material normally found in seaweed). When the solution of coated nanoparticles is mixed together, the positively and negatively charged coatings are attracted to each other by electrostatic force to form a “nano-network.”)

2. Once injected into the subcutaneous layer of the skin, that nano-network holds the nanoparticles together and prevents them from dispersing throughout the body.

3. The injected insulin begins to diffuse from the coated PLGA nanoparticles, which are also porous. But most of the insulin doesn’t stray far — it is suspended in a de facto reservoir in the subcutaneous layer of the skin by the electrostatic force of the nano-network. This essentially creates a dose of insulin that is simply waiting to be delivered into the bloodstream.

4. The patient can use a small, hand-held device to apply focused ultrasound waves to the site of the nano-network, painlessly releasing the insulin from its de facto reservoir into the bloodstream.
When the ultrasound is removed, the electrostatic force reasserts itself and pulls the nanoparticles in the nano-network back together. The nanoparticles then diffuse more insulin, refilling the reservoir.

5. When the insulin runs out, a new nano-network has to be injected.

Ultrasonic waves generate microscope gas bubbles

The researchers believe the technique works because the ultrasound waves excite microscopic gas bubbles in the tissue, temporarily disrupting the nano-network in the subcutaneous layer of the skin. That disruption pushes the nanoparticles apart, relaxing the electrostatic force being exerted on the insulin in the reservoir.

This allows the insulin to begin entering the bloodstream — a process hastened by the effect of the ultrasound waves pushing on the insulin.

“We know this technique works, and we think this is how it works, but we are still trying to determine the precise details,” says Dr. Yun Jing, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at NC State and co-corresponding author of the paper.

“We’ve done proof-of-concept testing in laboratory mice with type 1 diabetes,” Gu says. “We found that this technique achieves a quick release of insulin into the bloodstream, and that the nano-networks contain enough insulin to regulate blood glucose levels for up to 10 days.”

“The system may be available commercially in a few years, but we first need to perform large animal studies and clinical trials, Gu told KurzweilAI. Gu is also a senior author of a paper on the research.

“Compared to the traditional insulin delivery method (needle/syringe based), our method is non-invasive, painless, with quick response. and can last a long time (one injection can last over a week, or even longer),” he said.

This work was supported by NC TraCS, NIH’s Clinical and Translational Science Awards at UNC-CH.

Abstract of Advanced Healthcare Materials paper

An on demand, non-invasive and portable insulin delivery method that can achieve pulsatile insulin release and effective regulation of blood glucose is highly desirable for type 1 and advanced type 2 diabetes administration. We report that integration of an injectable nano-network with a focused ultrasound system (FUS) can remotely regulate insulin release both in vitro and in vivo. Serving as a synthetic insulin reservoir, the nano-network consisting of adhesive poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles significantly promoted insulin release upon intermittent FUS triggers. Remarkably, a maximum of 80-fold increase in the insulin release rate was observed when the nano-network was exposed to the irradiation of ultrasound for 30 sec. In vivo studies validated that this method provided repeatable and spatiotemporal regulation of blood glucose levels in Type 1 diabetic mice. A single subcutaneous injection of the nano-network with intermittent FUS administration facilitated reduction of the blood glucose levels for up to 10 days.

Comments (16)

It would be fine if all of them were
crazy but IMO most are just the
Opposite. Their job is to fill the
public narrative with a mix of BS &
fact with the intention of blurring the
difference. Does that resonate with
certain unfortunately populist political
tropes? Yes it does. The ones who
find it very easy to create their own
little conservative bubble of faith based
BS and get away with it. Climate change?
Matter of opinion. Or nano particles will
filter out C02 in 5 yrs. *Evilution*
Just a changeable theory.
Glenn Beck? Well he’s not everyone’s
cup of tea blah blah blah.

@Klaato: can you name any time period when the opposing political spectrums haven’t spun BS with fact? I’m not looking to stop you from posting, and I don’t want this thrown in the pit as a personal attack. It’s just that this is an old tired troupe that you always use. It seems to be the only reason you post. To express your dissatisfaction with the political process.

This article is about advances in health care, not political ideologies, or the fact that they have always distorted the truth for their own gains. To quote from a post from Amara today in the article, ” FDA Allows Marketing of Next Generation Gene Sequencing Machines.” ” Bill you raise interesting points, but politics is strictly off topic on this website. Reason: It just leads to endless arguments.”

I don’t see how your post brings anything new to the debate. Especially in reference to the article that you are posting to. It’s just more Blah blah blah, and can never be more than that. It is a central theme to most of your posts. If saying just once the quote, all the world is a stage is too redundant to you, and not worthy of being applied in a modern context, how does your constant political drone help advance any position. Especially in light of Amara’s constant admonishments against political commentary.

Although this post will most likely be sent to the pit, I say it not out of anger toward you. I really could care less if you are hung up on the political three card Monty that politics has always been. You were critical of my post and I said I will return that to you. Look at things in the light of Amara’s statement, and though this post should clearly be thrown in the pit, if the rules are to be evenly enforced, yours should be there too. It clearly violates them to, and it does nothing for the advancement of knowledge. It only inflames ” ENDLESS arguments”. Hopefully Glen Becks name will never be spoken here again, or any other political pundit. All they have ever said is ” endless” blah blah blah. I’m looking forward to you writing inciteful posts on the topics at hand. Let’s leave politics and personally motivated insults and attacks off this website. It isn’t constructive for anyone, and it wastes everyones time.

When I leave this web page, I like to go to The New Yorker, or The Rolling Stone, or Salon.com. That’s when I keep seeing that science-denying politicians won’t stop meddling. They are always endeavoring to take science out of the hands of its practitioners.

We have to keep aware of these pols and share what we find out.

For science to advance, it must be protected from moss-backed know-nothings.

Know-nothing’s? Like the loyal hacks
employed by Cheney Bush to censor
scientific reports via NASA & others?
Or do you not make a distinction
between Bush & Obama?
“They’re all the same”
“all politicians are corrupt”
Totally false. Science denying theocrats
have power in only one party,
the Bircher batcrazy Republican Party.

Bri,
Regarding my comment:
Many ppl claiming to have
“M” claim the Gov. is injecting
them with nano particles etc.
Thus the reference.

My larger point made
in FEW words:
Ppl making the above claims
are usually, IMO, not deluded.
The intention is to insert
as many references to
“the gov is out to get me”
as possible across the www.

I notice it here sometimes.
Some commenters in their
never-ending run-on
sentences do stick to the
subject but always manage
to inject their,
“Gov is out to get us”
over and above any legitimate
ideas about intrusive Gov.

This is very important news. My much beloved Aunt Barbara, and her son Eric (who was only a couple of years older than me) both died of diabetes.

This is a technology that will help more of live long enough to see the Sing. We have to get excited about this, even if we don’t suffer from this disease, for others we know and love do suffer. (Amara, Ray has diabetes, doesn’t he? We certainly want to see him on “the other side.”) (Hey, here’s another meaning for that old song by The Doors.)

But this tech will only benefit those with insurance. When somebody is kicked out of his job by a robot, his insurance goes away with the job. Here in the U.S., Unemployment Insurance payments can be as little as half of the workers base pay. That has never been enough for me to make COBRA payments when I lost a job.

So now I see the error of levying Unemployment Insurance and Social Security taxes on the robots that take worker’s jobs.

That just won’t be enough.

The robots must also pay for Medicaid and Medicare. (Or at least they must continue making the COBRA payments to keep up the employee’s insurance that was supplied by his employer.)

Gordon, I was on kurzweilai.net a couple of days ago and there was an ad for a lung foundation(as I recall) that suggested gene therapy was available for COPD. I didn’t click on the link so have no further details.

Gordon, I believe that the most important problem that our society faces is the gap between what the job market needs and the education provided by the system.
In September,I heard a “blurb on the CBS national radio that 6 million between the ages of 15 and 24 were neither working nor in school.I also saw a statistic that 30 years ago, 5% of cab drivers had college educations, and now the number is 30%.
Somehow, education must train people to deal with the rapid change.
Toffler talked about “serial careers” in Future Shock, and that book was copyrighted almost 44 years ago. Where have our leaders been? I don’t have answers, but society cannot continue on this way. Now, food stamp programs are going to be cut. Will there be a pandemic of robberies and burglaries?

Ah yes, Renzo. I remember that book. I was discussing it back when I was sixteen-years-old, and now I’m 62 and see that the young people who we call the Millennial Generation are living that Future Shock as they work at Starbucks trying to pay off crippling student loans.

I was taught that it was the bourgeoisie who started the French Revolution.

All these young people struggling at part-time minimum-wage jobs just might be the people to start the next revolution.

It’ll be either them, or all those factory workers in Red States when they are all out-sourced or replaced by robots. Those are the people who always vote Republican so that they won’t have their assault rifle magazines reduced to seven rounds, like here in NY.